The Socratic Approach to Philosophy

The Socratic Approach to Philosophy

Socratic approach or also known as method of elenchus, or Socratic debate, or else elenctic method defines as a form of inquiry along with discussion between persons which grounded on questioning and answering the questions in order to stimulate critical thinking and also to brighten opinions. The Socratic approach is considered as one of the ancient, but so far, most effective teachings that might cause critical thoughtful. Socrates' approach is grounded on the teaching theory made by Socrates in order to help the students to figure out everything by and for themselves rather than only seal their thoughts with the correct answers. Socrates has a thought that the best approach to constantly engage all of the students to make dialogues is by answering all their questions with the question as well. It means that we should not give simple answers to the students’ questions so that it would encourage them to think differently (Seeskin, 2016).

In this approach, Socrates has presented a collaborative and aggressive dialogue between persons based on the questions answers. The reason behind this is to establish critical thinking and also drawing out ideas from one another. The theory provides a dialogue with a purpose to discover and attain the information by engaging the thought of others throughout an aggressive but informative manner. This theory of Socrates also meant to explore cautious opinions from the answers given by another person after a question has delivered, with a purpose to lead that person to challenge themselves in a certain way that would fundamentally decline the point of defenders. 

The Socratic approach could be practiced in teaching lessons throughout the dialogues or conversations between a teacher with a student, and also can be used in any discussion as well. So, we can say that the Socrates approach basically was around motivating people to think for themselves and, at the same time, deliver questions to others. This approach would be an ideal one to be used by the students who study law in order to catch a lie in their rival. In fact, this approach would really support the law students to use their skills in critical thinking and also improve their intellectual while impending the law.

Research has mentioned that the Socratic approach exposes how diverse our points of view every day. This approach requires individuals to be open and honest, to have a rational mindset, and also imaginative ones.  One of Socrates' scholars, Gregory Vlastos has even explained this approach with “It makes philosophical inquiry a common human enterprise open to every man.” (Meyer, 2011) This appears to happen in the theory rather than requiring adherence to some points of view for standard dialogues.

Thus, the characteristics of the Socratic approach could be defined as (Warne, 2013):

·         The Socratic dialogue has always considered as a pursuit for truth, which is different from the inflexible philosophy

·         The Socratic dialogue defines as an interdisciplinary activity which mixes the humanities, natural sciences, language and art daily

·         The Socratic dialogue always strives for both empathy and genuineness, in which the life experience is considered as fundamental as the methodical viewpoint

·         The Socratic dialogue always strives for a clear and simple language

·         The Socratic dialogue is considered as a perfectionistic activity

A contemporary example of Socratic dialogue is as follows.

A: “Do not touch there.”

B: “Why?”

A: “Because it is hot there.”

B: “Why is it hot?”

A: “It is a stove that’s why.”

B: “How the stove could make hot?”

Thus, we can make a conclusion that the Socratic approach is, indeed, an argumentative dialogue in which an individual consistently asking some questions of another individual, with a purpose to clarify a particular thought. In the end, the goal is actually to figure out a contradiction or else a flaw within a statement that might implant critical thinking as well as pose an issue to be resolved. While it might appear that there is lot of effort to just simply modify a normal sense idea, but once we could put it in practice, then we could become quite talented, only by using our own thinking and mindset. Hence, in this case, Socrates basically wants us to use our own mindset, knowledge, and experience to breakdown the daily common intelligence, analyze what are the shortcomings from it, and then, adjust it for truth and reality. As one quote from Socrates mentioned that, “The unexamined life is not worth living, and a life unlived, is not worth examining.” (Warne, 2013)